Another successful year of our Baroque Central Project

This summer marked the successful culmination of our 2016-17 Baroque Central Project.

Building upon previous years’ success, the 2016-17 Baroque Central scheme expanded to 12 classes from 8 schools across London. The scheme aims to create long-term relationships between us and local schools through the exploration of the life and music of George Frideric Handel. In addition, it works to inspire children with a sense of the time when Handel lived and composed his works here in Brook Street.

Children are given the opportunity to engage with Handel’s music and express their creativity in the composition of an original song. Each school receives three workshops over the course of the academic year and each class gets to work with  a group of professional composers and musicians.

This year, pupils learn to perform an aria from Handel’s opera Faramondo and the coronation anthem Zadok the Priest, as well as visiting the Britten Theatre at the Royal College of Music to see the London Handel Festival opera cast, orchestra and production team walk through and demonstrate elements of Faramondo. For many, it was their first experience of opera.

The project culminated in a final performance at Grosvenor Chapel, where 8 of the classes presented their compositions to one another. Accompanied by the composers and musicians they had worked with, the students displayed their impressive creativity, singing ability, and confidence performing in front of a large audience of their peers and teachers. The classes attending also joined together to perform stirring renditions of the two Handel pieces that they had all learned, marking an end of another successful year.

Find out more about Baroque Central in our film from last year: